I can warble a tune
by secedo
Summary: Maya enters the school talent show


Talent shows had been happening since fourth grade and this was the first year that Maya had found herself talked into signing up. She was sixteen now and singing had become more than just a shower activity for her.

That didn't mean she'd ever let anybody but Riley and her mother hear it though. Even Riley has been an accident.

Usually Maya locked herself in her bedroom with her guitar or the keyboard that she's saved up to buy herself on clearance. This time she was about to sing for the entire student body. She'd auditioned, been added to the roster, and chosen her song carefully.

She was wearing a simple dress and her hair was falling down around her shoulders, something she'd chosen to do specifically in case she needed to hide behind it at any time. She'd chosen to play the piano as she sang rather than be accompanied by the choir pianist. She thought having an instrument might distract her from the crowd of people listening to her.

She knew that she was a good singer. It wasn't that she feared she'd be made fun of. It was just that she was used to being a more behind the scenes person. She didn't put herself out there like that. She'd never admit how much it scared her though because Maya Hart didn't get scared.

She was next and she stood side stage panning the crowd for Riley, who was sitting very close to the front. She was still Maya's biggest cheerleader and for that she'd always be grateful. She knew that if she got too nervous she could just look to that seat and focus on her rock. She was sure that she would too.

She walked out onto the stage to a mess of applause and took her seat at the piano. She'd chosen a slow song, a love song, that required a good deal of emotion. At sixteen that wasn't hard to find within herself, not that she'd admit she had it bad for someone or anything.

Midway through the first verse she found herself looking up for her best friend, but she wasn't there anymore. Or, well, she was, but Maya found his eyes instead of Riley's and it seemed as if Riley had faded away entirely.

She couldn't make out the details of his eyes from her place on the stage but with the way that they were fixed on her she could see the sea foam green ring and the tiny specks so clearly in her head. She hadn't meant to sing this song to him even though she knew without a doubt she was singing this song to him. She was though and he was accepting it.

He didn't smile. She didn't either. They were stone faced and entranced as she crooned effortlessly. She only looked away when the song finished and she heard the eruption of applause once again.

When she left the stage she didn't go to change back into her normal clothes or go and rejoin her friends in the audience. Instead she found herself walking out to the mail hall and sitting quietly on a step. She'd had feelings for Lucas for years. That wasn't something she had to come to terms with. It was the way that he'd looked at her that was plaguing her mind right then.

She'd never considered that he might harbor the same feelings but now she was accidentally serenading him and he was letting her and looking at her like he loved her and it was only when she heard footsteps that she let her trance be broken. She didn't look up. She didn't need to to know that the energy she felt sitting beside her was his.

When she felt his arm begin to wrap around her middle and felt her breath hitch. She was afraid to look at him. She wasn't strong enough to say no but she had to.

Maya and Riley had never discussed the Lucas situation. Riley was still harboring a small crush on him and Maya knew it. They'd attempted dating so many times over the years and while it was clear that Lucas just was not ever going to feel that way about her, Riley still saw him as her Prince Charming.

Maya suspected that it had less to do with actually liking him and more to do with the fact that they met at the same time their parents had started their journey and the fact that Riley so desperately wanted a love story to match. Maya just wanted the person who understood her jokes and who could handle her passion and who made her laugh like nobody else could. Unfortunately it had to be the same boy.

So when Lucas began to tell her how beautiful she'd sounded and how she shouldn't be sad because she was amazing she had no idea what to do.

"I'm not sad," she assured him, although at this point he was completely holding her and her eyes were glistening because this wasn't something she'd ever thought tangible and it was so pathetic how much it was affecting her.

"You're dark and brooding and Maya and you have nothing to feel dark and brooding and Maya over. You told me once that you could warble a tune but what you just did was pure talent. And it's not even the only one you have. You got up there and you shared it and it was the prettiest thing I've ever heard and you should be proud right now. You should be on cloud nine because everybody just clapped so loud for you."

She wasn't listening. She'd heard what he said, sure, but it was irrelevant because he wasn't even right on what her problem was. There really wasn't any use pretending it didn't exist anymore though. It was just the two of them and if she could trust anybody then it was him.

"I won't hurt her," she told him quietly, finally turning her head to look at his face as she did.

He sucked in a breath and nodded to communicate that he understood now what the issue at hand was. "What about you? What about me?"

She considered it for a moment but then smiled sadly at him. "We both know we're resilient in ways she isn't. We both know how this is going to work if we go down that road and I can't be the one responsible for shattering her."

He knew that and it was clear in his frown. There was no winning this war. At least not until she moved on, but Maya didn't know if she ever actually would with her parents legacy looming over her head.

"Can't we just..." Lucas started, but Maya was already shaking her head with a look of nothing but regret.

He leaned in anyway and pressed their lips together. It was a slow kiss but a passionate one full of yearning and resentment and love and finality.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. You weren't supposed to meet the one that got away at thirteen and they weren't supposed to kiss you for the first and last time at sixteen. They were too young for this tragic story and Maya wasn't sure if she'd ever really forgive Riley for this.


End file.
